General Full-Frame R6 & R7 Writing To Second Card

[Jake Shoots Birds]

So this has happened twice in the last week with the R7 and once with my R6 - with both cards in the slot the camera has written to the card in slot 1 and not slot 2. With the R7 it was as recently as this morning, and immediately after I reformatted the card in slot 1, so it's not that the card isn't readable. Last night I picked up the R6 which had sat at home while we were away and used it to take some pics of the garden. Card one was seated and had photos on it, but when I went to take the new pics off the card they weren't there. Sure enough they were on card 2.

Has anyone experienced this?! I'm more concerned about the R7 since the card in slot 1 is 3X as fast clearing the buffer and I can't afford to have it not writing to it when I need that buffer to clear.

 

[Kwazy]

Are you sure the setting to write to both cards is on?
If it's not on, and set to only write to card 1 for example, if you take card 1 out of the camera, it will switch to write to card 2.

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

Are you sure the setting to write to both cards is on?
If it's not on, and set to only write to card 1 for example, if you take card 1 out of the camera, it will switch to write to card 2.

I do not have it set to write to both. I have the Separate option in Setup-1 set to Disable, Rec Options (photos) set to Standard, and Record/Play (photos) set to Card 1, but it's not set to "Priority" which is probably the reason it ignores it, but that just seems ridiculous to have to set it to Card 1 but the camera can simply ignore it if the box isn't checked. But then again it's a Canon menu option and some of them aren't necessarily designed to make sense. LOL If that's what it does then you might as well just have a "Random" option in the menu so you know that's what's happening.

 

[Kwazy]

Sorry, I should've read more carefully. Yes, I actually noticed the same thing yesterday. I had previously been writing to both cards, so didn't see this issue, but recently switched to write to only card 1. Then noticed that it switched to writing to card 2 instead. Turns out if you have it set to card 1 and take the card out to offload images, and then put it back in, it'll actually write to card 2. I guess it notices that card 1 is missing and auto-switches to 2, but never switches back to 1 when it's put back in. Perhaps this could be addressed in a firmware update (haha yea right).

On the other hand, if you have it set to always write to both cards (which I think I'll switch back to), this doesn't happen.
That's a safer option anyway, in case one card fails. And if you run out of space, you can always take one of the cards out, format the remaining one, and use it for more storage anyway.

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

The problem I have with mirroring cards on the R7 is the size of the buffer, so I either need to pony up for two 299MB/s write speed cards or suffer the speed of the slower one. Instead I just cross my fingers and hope the card I have doesn't fail.

As I go through the menus I just get so frustrated with Canon and how they decide to do things. Like you can assign Card 1 to photos and Card 2 to Video (or vice versa), but you can only prioritize Card 1 for either and can't prioritize Card 2 for anything. The way you do that is to enable Separation for cards, but here I don't know if card 2 will eventually serve as overflow for card 1 or not (and vice versa). Nikon made it soooooo simple for this stuff, I don't know why Canon felt the need to make it so complicated.

And yeah, it seems that the card switch happens when you remove a card to transfer images, regardless of whether or not the camera is switched off. So silly.

 

[JayAy]

The card switch will only happens if you close the door - the thinking being that it's better to get a shot on a card in the camera than miss it by trying to save to the card that is not there! If you leave the door open and then replace the card, the writing switch will not happen. Best practice is to switch the camera off before removing a card.

 

[Kwazy]

The card switch will only happens if you close the door - the thinking being that it's better to get a shot on a card in the camera than miss it by trying to save to the card that is not there! If you leave the door open and then replace the card, the writing switch will not happen. Best practice is to switch the camera off before removing a card.

Ahhh, the "it's a feature, not a bug" strikes again!

 

[dougsmit]

During my time with the RP and one card slot, my practice was to remove the SD card and insert it into the SD slot on my desktop computer. With the R7, I bought a UHS II SD card only to discover that the reader on my computer was not compatible so I had to download images via the USB3 connection. Many of my RP images were made on a copy/macro/studio rig and it was much easier to take out the card than move the body to the computer. The R7, however, is used for shots making use of its improved features so placing the camera and lenses up to 200mm on top of the computer worked fine. I did discover just by testing that you are offered a choice of which card to download this way so it seems easier especially if you have images on both cards. Now that I see it worked, I won't be keeping a second card in the camera on a regular basis (I don't shoot weddings or things important enough to back up with dual cards and have never had a card problem). This post has been most interesting and now seems obvious that the auto switch is a good 'feature' compared to refusing to write to the one and only card even if it was not the slot selected. We have to realize that camera designers had to face a thousand such decisions and some of us will never understand some of the defaults. My big one is the need to set the camera to release shutter without lens which enables use of a dozen lenses (vintage, manual, microscope etc.) I have used with the RP. So far I have seen no reason to use any of those with the R7 but set that option the first time I used the camera anyway. I find it hard to imagine that anyone buys a camera of even the lowest RF level and does not want to change at least a few of the defaults. I remain amazed that you can even change your Canon lenses to focus backwards like a Nikon but I'll bet that was important to someone out there.

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

I remain amazed that you can even change your Canon lenses to focus backwards like a Nikon but I'll bet that was important to someone out there.

The former Nikon Pro DSLR shooter, no doubt. Anything that removes excuses for not changing systems is a bonus.

 

[Kwazy]

Focus backwards?
Please explain.

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

Focus backwards?
Please explain.

Nikon and Canon zoom and focus dials (and mounts) notoriously move in opposite directions to do the same thing. Turning left on Nikon is the same as turning right on Canon. When you switch everything is "backwards". Since the focus ring is no longer mechanical Canon has allowed you to change a setting so that it is either traditional Canon or traditional Nikon, making it easier for a former Nikon user to use the new equipment.

 

[Kwazy]

Ohh. Yes, I actually switched the focusing direction on my camera because the default seemed unnatural. Have never used a Nikon though.

 

[dougsmit]

Several other mounts also work that way. My first SLR in 1966 was a Pentax H3v that did. My Canon Digital Rebel took some getting used to but now it seems correct. I started with a Leica which was more solid braced on the face if you used the left eye. This was before I ever heard of tests to tell whether you are left or right eyed (I was left). Later a cataract made my right eye sharper and the surgery did not change that so I am trying to learn to use the right but years of practice with the left make that harder. Old habits are hard to break.